Does ‘Wonder Woman’ Deserve Oscar Nominations? Warner Bros Thinks So

After successfully igniting a sluggish summer box office, Warner Bros. reportedly plans to launch an Academy Award campaign for “Wonder Woman,” according to a Thursday report from Variety. No public comments of the campaign have been made, but Variety claims internal discussions of the plans have occurred.

“Wonder Woman,” which broke major box-office records and far exceeded expectations, will be fully backed by the studio as it aims for Best Director and Best Picture nominations.

Does “Wonder Woman” deserve such acclaim? Will “Wonder Woman” receive any Oscar nominations?

Many would safely say that the superhero film doesn’t have a serious shot at major awards for a number of reasons.

“Wonder Woman” opened to an unexpected $103 million at the domestic box office, earning $783 million worldwide to date, according to Box Office Mojo. However, box office numbers are mostly irrelevant to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which often favor independent titles that have received awards from festivals.

The Best Director and Best Picture categories are mostly reserved for dramas and musicals. In 2017, the coming-of-age drama “Moonlight” took Best Picture beating out musical romantic-comedy-drama “La La Land.” Perhaps the only film that didn’t quite fit with the others was “Arrival,” a science fiction film.

Comic-book action movies have been almost completely ignored by the Academy. The one exception was Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight,” which earned an Oscar win for late actor Heath Ledger for his portrayal of the Joker.

Another obstacle for “Wonder Woman” is how the film failed to generate much of a compelling plot for many critics. It also has received a great deal of praise for mainly overshadowing largely unimpressive superhero films like “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and “Suicide Squad.”

Patty Jenkins has earned praise for her directorial efforts on “Wonder Woman,” but it still might be a stretch for Jenkins to receive Oscar consideration. Directors like Nolan of the Batman franchise and Sam Raimi of the Spiderman films were all overlooked by the Academy.

Despite the impediments, Anne Thompson of Indiewire believes “[Gal] Gadot and [Chris] Pine will be nominated, as Best Actress and Supporting Actor, respectively, with Jenkins — depending on how generous the Guilds and critics will be at year’s end — scoring some Best Director…